2012 Statement

Statement by H.E. Mr. Kazuo Kodama
Charge d’Affaires ad interim
Deputy Permanent Representative of Japan to the United Nations
Open Debate on Women and Peace and Security
Security Council
23 February 2012

Thank you Mr. President for holding this important open debate on conflict-related sexual violence. I would like to thank SRSG on Sexual Violence in Conflict Ms. Wallstrom, USG for Peacekeeping Operations Mr. Ladsous and the NGO representative from Libya for their insightful briefing.

(SG report, MARA)

Japan welcomes the Secretary-General’s recent report which contains broad information on parties committing or responsible for the acts of rape and other forms of sexual violence including in post-conflict situations and other situations of concern. We expect that monitoring, analysis and reporting arrangements (MARA) will be made fully functional in all situations experiencing conflict-related sexual violence and that they will contribute to providing more specific and detailed information on conflict-related sexual violence in both country-specific and the thematic reports of the Secretary-General in the future.

(Accountability, Ending impunity)

We also appreciate that the report has listed for the first time parties that are credibly suspected of committing or being responsible for patterns of rape and other forms of sexual violence in situations of armed conflict as per the Security Council agenda. Japan strongly condemns those parties listed and calls on them to make specific and time-bound commitments to cease acts of sexual violence and bring perpetrators to justice. If they fail to do so, the Security Council must respond with appropriate measures, including targeted measures, to hold those parties accountable.

In this regard, we commend that the Security Council Committee on the Democratic Republic of the Congo decided last December to add Ntabo Ntaberi Sheka, a militia leader responsible for mass rape to the sanction list. We are also encouraged to hear that the Guinean court filed charges against Lieutenant Colonel Moussa Tiegboro Camara earlier this month for the mass rape committed in Conakry in 2009.

Mr. President,

(Mandates of SRSG and Team of Experts) Japan reiterates its full support for the mandate of SRSG Wallstrom and commends her vigorous advocacy efforts toward ending conflict-related sexual violence. We welcome that the Team of Experts has become fully operational and has so far visited four countries. Japan encourages those countries to continue cooperating with the Team of Experts and hopes they benefit from the Team’s expertise to strengthen the rule of law, improve their justice systems and reform their security sector to combat sexual violence.

(Prevention) As the SRSG has pointed out on many occasions, sexual violence is never a by-product of conflict and it can be prevented. We should focus more on the prevention side of this issue. Japan welcomes the framework of early warning signs specific to conflict-related sexual violence that has been developed, based on collective analysis by the broader membership of the United Nation system. We encourage all stakeholders to apply the framework of early warning indicators into their immediate responses to conflict. We also expect that the next SG report will include more analysis on the root causes of conflict-related sexual violence from the perspective of prevention.

Finally, Mr. President,

(UN Action network) I would like to underline the important role played by UN Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict, a network of 13 UN entities, chaired by SRSG Wallstrom. UN Action is the key to a comprehensive and coordinated approach in preventing and responding to conflict-related sexual violence. Japan welcomes UN Action’s strategic framework for 2011-12 which specifies leading entities for each action. We expect that UN Action will further strengthen its network and activities on the ground, particularly by making positive changes for the survivors of conflict-related sexual violence tangible.